


Mending Tears

by Of_Princes_and_Savages



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Hera's here and she's very smug?, I don't know how to input characters for this..., Making this multichapter now, Multi, NEAL LIIIIVES, SWANFIIIIRE, This is gonna be one of those fics that characters and tags get added as it expands isn't it?, Update: Archie gets an adventure, no CS here so sorry, side pairing: Rumbelle/OutlawQueen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-04 12:46:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14593344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Of_Princes_and_Savages/pseuds/Of_Princes_and_Savages
Summary: The Fates have discovered a grievous error in the tapestry of mortal lives, and the gods give Baelfire an alternative choice to the afterlife.





	1. I. An Intervention by Fate(s)

**Author's Note:**

> It occurs to me I switch back and forth between "Bae" and "Neal" in this fic. Do let me know if it's disorienting, please, I had all but the last paragraph finished before yesterday and rushed to get it out there.
> 
> ALSO: More notes at the end, but it should be noted that the title is "Tears" as in "ripped" not "Tears" as in "what I weep over what could have been", so!

Three very irate women burst in on Mount Olympus, scaring the eternal daylights out of every god to cross paths with them.

There were very few entities all the Olympians feared: Typhon, Cronus...and of course, the Fates. Far and away, it was the Fates that the gods feared the most. They had taken it upon themselves to decide how things would be, weaving an ornate tapestry with the life of every being to ever live. Mortals were the ones to suffer and benefit from the Fates the most, as their lives were so pitifully short...but the gods too feared them, because in their hands, even their existence was temporary.

The life of each being was spun on a wheel by Clotho, who resembled a beautiful young woman, recieving a mix of the good and the bad. Lachesis, a woman who seemed to be in middle-age, measured this life-line, and laid choices in the way that would lead a person along their ultimate fate. The one who looked like a crone, though, Atropos...she was the most powerful by far. It was Atropos that carried the Abhorred Shears, the only blade strong enough to cut the line of a person's life. That all three women bore the same face of different ages, that they spoke in unison, and all wore solemn gray robes was all unnerving...

But what had as many gods fleeing from their path as there were quietly trailing behind them to Zeus' throne room today, was that Clotho and Lachesis were carring what looked like a rolled-up tapestry between them, and wore matching looks of fury. Atropos whacked her cane against the great doors that flung open at the blow. Zeus jerked upright on his throne, wide-eyed with surprise as the Fates stormed in and flung down the tapestry.

_**"SOMEONE HAS TAMPERED WITH DESTINY!"** _

* * *

Zelena could have screamed.

She'd set the perfect trap for Rumple's precious son and his little maid in the Dark Castle, one of them was sure to rush headlong into danger and sacrifice their lives to ressurect the Dark One from his vault. And she was willing to wait for them to journey to the castle all by themselves, only now the wait would take weeks longer.

So...plan B.

There was a village not an unreasonable distance from the Dark Castle, relatively safe from Ogres. As with most villages, there was one or two greedy old sots looking to get rich quick. A few whispered words got rumors spreading of a fabulous treasure out in the woods, and sure enough, one villager actually made it out there. They didn't pay any mind to the seals and couldn't feel the dark enchantments boiling around the vault, not until it was too late, at least...

Plan B worked smashingly.

* * *

Bae didn't know what just happened, but suddenly he was standing in the middle of a very bright room surrounded by very tall, very shiny people. He shaded his eyes, but one by one, they dimmed their brightness down to a more manageable glow. He started making out weird details like a lady with an owl on her shoulder, a dude with a big horsehair helmet, a hipsterish looking guy with wings fluttering around the heels of his shoes...

And the couple sitting on the throne, oh yeah, lets not forget them.

"Uh..."

Contrasting with all the tall, beautiful people in the room, were three normal-sized women. Maybe they were family, they all looked alike, dressed in the same homespun gray gowns. The old lady had a cane, and a pair of scissors hanging off her belt. The woman who could've been her daughter was holding a ruler like she was about to smack somebody with it, and the young girl was holding a ball of thread. They didn't look all that frightening...but Bae's stomach started doing backflips when he made eye-contact with the young one.

A flashing series of images from childhood passed through his head before he could look away. His life literally flashed before his eyes, cutting off as he slipped through the portal as his father let him go...

"Baelfire," the three women spoke in unison, their faces serious as they rattled off titles, "Neal Cassidy, son of Rumpelstiltskin, father of Henry Mills. Your time has been cut unnaturally short."

"M-my time? Uh...I'm sorry, what's happening here?"

They pointed to the rug laid out on the floor. Wait, it wasn't a rug though. Papa had done a little bit of weaving, but it was time-consuming and the labor wasn't worth the pittance people paid him for his work. Bae could at least see where someone came along and did a very, very poor job in the middle of a very, very nice job, where the tight, sparkling weaving turned dull and sloppy, with gaping holes that barely held together. The young girl held out the yarn ball in her hand.

"Your fate was undone," they all said together, and god that was _creepy_. "Someone had tampered with destiny, reweaving it how they saw fit, cutting your life off before events could unfold as they were meant to. This must be fixed."

"I don't understand," Bae blinked. "Dead is dead. That's what they told me in the Underworld, and isn't that, like, a rule of magic?"

The woman on the throne snorted rudely, totally at odds with her queenly visage. "No, that's the rules for mortal magic, my dear boy. _Gods_ can flout the rules whenever _they_ please."

That sounded very passive-aggressive, and you didn't need to read minds to tell who towards. The queen kept giving the king a vicious side-eye, until he muttered something under his breath and sat up straight. He looked kind of like a frat boy dressed up for a Halloween party in a white robe, not nearly as well-dressed as the woman beside him in her silky pink gown and shiny black curls coiled elaborately away from her face.

"Precisely," the king said, sounding very full of it. "And seeing as how the mess in the Underworld left behind by Hades is still being straightened out by the new foreman-" one of the onlookers in the throne room gave a hoot of laughter that Bae didn't understand, but annoyed the king anyway, "-I see no harm in correcting this...oversight. You will be returned to Earth immediately, your body intact."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Bae threw his hands up. "Time out! What the hell?"

Zeus-and it had to be Zeus if he'd mentioned Hades, right?-rolled his eyes and slumped back in his chair. " _What?_ We're restoring you to life. Don't you want to go back to your son, to your True Love?"

"Yeah, okay, see, that's just it: Emma's moved on, Henry's moved on, my dad is _finally_ moving on. Bringing me back to life would just make everybody freak out, I'd be causing more problems than I'd solve-I can't just do that to my family." The temptation was there, more than a little bit. It would be great to talk to his father and Henry again, maybe even check in with Belle, or even August, but it would just be too weird. And he was _happy_ where he had been, honestly, uncomplicatedly happy.

No, he couldn't do that to them.

"Well, then you could start over somewhere else, wipe your memory-"

"I don't want to forget either! Just put me back where..." Bae looked around for a door. He didn't see one. "Wherever I came from. It's really, _really_ , uh, gracious of you, to offer me the chance and all, but I just don't see how it's practical."

A little too late, Bae remembered the countless stories of Zeus and his lightning bolts. There was something about how Zeus was the patron of guests or something, right? Wasn't it bad manners to fry your guests? The god's eyes took on a stormy appearance, Bae swore he heard thunder in the distance. _Oh shit..._

Then Hera-that was Zeus' queen, right?-swatted his arm, like she knew what Zeus was thinking. "I told you so."

"Quiet woman-"

"No. _I told you so_ ," she repeated, smirking. She kinda reminded Bae of Regina Mills when she did that, creepy. "It's impractical and selfish, for one, and for another, you think you'd have learned a lesson from the last mortal you sent back to Storybr-"

 ** _"ENOUGH!"_** the trio of women howled, and a cold, sharp wind blasted through the hall. _ **"SILENCE!"**_

Baelfire felt his legs go weak, but miraculously remained standing. With multicolored puffs of smoke, several of the other gods vanished, and the three women had become surrounded by a fuzzy gray fog that dulled the brightness of the room. The middle-aged one jabbed her ruler at Bae then, doing the gesturing for the trio.

"Fate is meant to be," she boomed. "But destiny, destiny is negotiable. If you do not wish to return to the world you've been parted from, there are alternatives. You, Baelfire, have choices: Do you wish to return to your afterlife, to the warm embrace of finality? Or do you want to live out your fate, in a world of possibility?"

Possibilities. Now that sounded different...but.

"What's the catch?" It wasn't just magic that came with a price, usually "favors" did too.

The young girl waved her hand over the yarn. It wriggled to life in the air, unrolling from the ball and spooling out, criss-crossing over and over until a fresh tapestry appeared, almost identical to the one stretched out on the floor. The middle-aged woman tapped the center with her ruler, and the freshly-woven fabric sparkled. A thick, tightly knit yellow line appeared, flowing through the areas that had been so holey before.

"The price of choosing to live is that it isn't permanent. If you make the wrong choices, you will have to live with them. You make the right choices and live with them, you die, and you are dead. Emma Swan may reject you, your son might drift away, your father may disappoint you again. Or maybe not. The price to pay for possibilities is a mortal life, with the good and the bad."

The old woman looked him in the eye, and through the cold sensastion washing over Bae's skin, he felt something else when she pointed her scissors at him. Something he'd forgotten about in all the years he'd been dead. Hope.

"Is that a fair price, Baelfire?" she asked, poising the thread between the blades to be cut at his word...

* * *

"OW!"

It was getting dark and the trees around them spread shallow roots that jutted up from the ground, half-hidden under a carpet of dead leaves. Bae had thought he'd been paying attention, but obviously he did not, and now he was face-first in the leaves. He had a lot on his mind, sure, but damn, where had he been just now?

"Are you alright?" Belle spun around, hurrying back to him as he spit dirt out his mouth. (She moved along just fine in her two-inch high heeled boots, which he could only guess was a superpower.)

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright, I just-" he hissed, rolling over and finding that his ankle was _throbbing_ with pain. "I don't think I'm alright, actually. _Ow_."

"Let me have a look," Belle said, gently feeling his ankle through his boot before she tried to tug it off. At that point, Bae yelped out a curse that he promptly apologized for, and Belle diagnosed the problem as a sprain. "You can't walk on that for at least a few days," she said, tying off a splint. "We'll have to-"

"But what about getting to the Dark Castle?"

"Well it's not going anywhere, and even if it was, it can wait until you're back on your feet." Belle unrolled one of their blankets and tossed it to him. "Besides, what would your father say if the first thing he saw was you limping?"

"Probably something along the lines of 'why did you bring me back at great personal cost?' or something. Papa's always been kind of funny about help like that, you know. He'd break his own leg-Well actually he did break his own foot for me, but you try to do something for him and he thinks it's not worth it."

Belle gave a small, weak laugh as she started piling dry twigs together to start a fire. It was understandable. It wasn't yet a month ago that Papa had sacrificed himself to save the whole town from Pan, after all. Maybe they were stuck in the denial stage in grief, but both Bae and Belle felt sure his father wasn't gone for good, not yet. Obviously, no Dark One ever commited suicide or there would be no Dark One to speak of, right, so maybe there was some...loophole they could use here.

Still...it hurt. Rumpelstiltskin was gone.

But maybe not forever...

* * *

It wasn't often that Hera got the chance to gloat over her husband with impunity, and that the Fates themselves had been the ones to slap the mighty Zeus' godly wrist was icing on the cake.

It wasn't unusual for gods to interfere in mortal lives, but Zeus in particular was almost the worst of them. Right behind that little tart Aphrodite and her minion Cupid, hmph.

This time, his eye had been drawn to a particular lot before Cerberus tore his little bastard Hercules to shreds. (Which was not Hera's doing, but also not something she disapproved of.) Hercules had been sweet on some little princess, Snow White of the Enchanted Forest, and Hera wondered sometimes if Zeus was hoping his boy would marry her so that he might become a king. It didn't work out that way, of course, and the little princess married a good-natured-if-not-clever shepherd who was a good match for her.

Hera approved of the couple, but it was entertaining to watch their mortal squabbles with Regina and Rumpelstiltskin, too. Regina was someone Hera could empathize with, more often than not, and Rumpelstiltskin had his own merits. Faults aplenty, but also some very good characteristics. Zeus was _not_ fond of Rumpelstiltskin, though, perhaps because Hades had been a fan of his schemes, or perhaps because he reminded him a bit of Prometheus. The one thing Zeus could not tolerate was someone smarter than him, someone with the capacity to outwit him.

No other god minded Prometheus giving man fire, but Zeus saw that as an affront to his rule and had the Titan chained to a rock ever since. Wth an eagle pecking out his liver every day.

But despite his quests for power, mainly Rumpelstiltskin was obsessed with finding his child. Not at all concerned with crossing gods, not on purpose anyway. But Zeus could be very paranoid, and he'd been relieved when Rumpelstiltskin died. However, somewhere between then and now, Zeus had apparently gone and changed fate. He did not explain his reasons, but Hera had her suspicions.

It was something she and her husband had in common after all: To punish the parent, punish the child.

Only now Neal Cassidy/Baelfire was quite alive, and there was little chance of a certain pirate ingratiating his way between Rumpelstiltskin and his grandson's family as a form of indirect punishment now...

* * *

The last five months had been a wild ride to say the least.

First there was Zelena, who was terrorizing the town with Papa, resurrected from the dead and under the witch's control via the dagger. She wanted to get her mitts on Emma's unborn baby sibling to cast a time travel spell, which through a very long series of events, never happened. Neal's head still kind of spun when he tried to put the pieces together, so he'd given up for now.

Someone sent a memory potion to Hook, someone who was probably Papa, and Hook managed to get the potion to Emma but that was about the end of his usefulness. Literally. Everything he did after that was a hindrance: Getting in the way of Emma's investigations, trying to bond with Henry when he didn't understand thing one about the kid, (even without amnesia,) and to top it all off, he temporarily stole Emma's powers because he didn't bother to tell anyone he'd been cursed to steal her magic if they kissed.

Apparently Zelena believed Hook and Emma had potential as a couple? Well...no. Emma only locked lips with the captain because she was trying to save him from drowning, so...no.

Neal had been busy helping Belle try saving Papa, and, providing a distraction to keep Henry out of harms way. Just like their "first" meeting, Henry was upset that Emma lied about where his father was and was curious about Neal, who he now believed to be the reason Emma acted like she was hiding something for their first week in town. Once the curse-thingie broke and everybody got their memories back things were fine though.

 _Mostly_.

Papa was in rough shape. Belle and Archie had their work cut out for them, sorting through three centuries plus one long year's worth of trauma, but it wasn't going badly. Papa and Belle were engaged, and they'd decided to hold the wedding off for a year or so to make sure everything was level. Neal moved in to the library apartment, and was put in charge as Belle's assistant for a little while. He had dinner or lunch with his father and almost-step-mom a lot, and sometimes Emma and Regina let Henry tag along.

Once, Neal caught Papa showing Henry a proper grip for swordsmanship, using a spatula, and he really had to ask Emma and Regina what the appropriate age for a boy to own a sword was...

(He was also living in the library because he was 90% sure he'd heard Belle scream one night when all three of them were sleeping in the pink house, and it did _not_ sound like a nightmare.)

Emma was having to do some adjustments too. Her parents had their newborn son to look after, and even though she was twenty-nine, Emma was suffering from the same flickers of jealous any firstborn child would. The kid's name was Leopold Graham Nolan, kinda cute when he wasn't screaming, and aside from Zelena's meddling, totally average. No curses, no magic powers, no prophecies...

"I feel so stupid, but it's like I was the trial run and this is their _real_ chance at having a family." Emma groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose while they sat in the bug with cups of hot coffee. One of the Merry Men, Will O'Hara or something, had gotten in a drunken fistfight with Leroy at the Rabbit Hole over something they were now having a hungover argument about, (fairies maybe? Neal didn't have the details,) so the bug was the quietest place for her to be. "That's horrible right?"

"I dunno. I mean, maybe? I think about my dad having a kid with Belle and I feel sort of the same way...but then, like, would you love Henry less if you had another baby?"

"Of course not." Emma sounded offended, then paused. "Ah. I see."

"Guess being a parent is good for more than trying to break you of a swearing habit and remembering to buy milk. Who knew?"

Emma laughed a little at that. Either she was getting better at laughing or Neal was getting better at making her laugh again. She had her hands full trying to wrangle the Snow Queen, find Anna of Arendelle, and help Queen Elsa home again, though, so there wasn't any time to really think about that. Regina had become Emma's usual confidant in times like these and was trying to teach her some magic tips, but between keeping Zelena locked up and re-bonding with Henry and starting a fresh new relationship with freaking Robin Hood, the former Evil Queen was a little busy too.

Maybe when this debacle settled down...well, there'd probably be another emergency after this, since they jumped from Pan to Zelena to the Snow Queen. (Or, Neal's grandfather, Regina's evil half-sister, and Emma's crazy foster mom, depending on who you were and how you stood.) But once they got the Snow Queen managed, maybe he and Emma could have that talk in Granny's they were meaning to have last year.

Neal sure wasn't going anywhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO. I don't see how the Frozen arc could have been avoided since with a few differences, (PLOT FOR THE MAIN CHARACTERS INSTEAD OF THE GUEST STARS, LESS CS-PUSHING,) things might have been better. I haven't worked out who went back in time with Emma in order for the vase to go time-travelling itself, but it's a safe bet to say it wasn't Hook. There *may* be a few brief ficlets in the future expanding on this hope for change, but it is safe to assume Hook is pretty much out of the picture now. He was really only there to actively hunt, I mean, chase down Emma's affections to start with, sooo...
> 
> Post-Frozen, as Rumpelstiltskin is in therapy and didn't feel compelled to murder Zelena to get even, there's no Marian involvement because that was annoying, and that means no banishment because Rumple is getting is act together with his wife instead of sneaking behind her back. *whacks him with a newspaper* No banishment/Marian means no Author, no Queens of Darkness, and basically things can calm the hell down in Storybrooke for a change. Which *may* mean another ficlet or two, we shall see.
> 
> Long Live Neal/Bae and (though he doesn't *have* to be paired off with Emma, they can be friends and co-parents, I can deal, but still I prefer) long live Swanfire!


	2. II. Time Travelling With A Cricket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Emma, Archie, and of course Hook, fall through Zelena's activated time portal and attempt to fix the ripple effect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I intended to write A SINGLE ficlet...that spawned into this chapter-length AU. In case anyone is wondering, I am still working on the Unresolved, but this jumped into my head and said OKAY BUT HOW ABOUT ARCHIE GOES TIME-TRAVELLING WITH EMMA???!!?
> 
> Notes at the end for details!

Pongo liked to run. Archie did not like to run so much, so Pongo couldn't run much on their walks, but today his master had taken him for a walk in the big green place surrounded by town-smells and then they went for a nice long run with Emma. Pongo liked Emma, she and the small boy Henry had taken care of him when Archie was gone.

Pongo did _not_ like the man with the shiny metal bit for a hand that had chased Emma down in the park, though. He smelled bad. Bad like Archie did when he came home at last, with bruises and bumps.

They ran, all of them, away from town to where the air smelled clean and green. Pongo could smell squirrels in the trees they passed as Archie pulled him along to a big wooden house that smelled... _like danger_. Energy crackled in the air, the house glowing orange the closer they got. Pongo turned and ran fast enough that his leash was yanked out of Archie's hand, and Pongo barked for his master and Emma to flee with him back to town.

They hadn't, and now they and the bad-smelling man were eaten by the house, swallowed up by the bright light inside.

* * *

Emma was starting to hate the Enchanted Forest for personal reasons rather than fairytale ones now.

Archie had said when they were staring at the wanted poster, of course, that they could be more than thirty years in the past. It was Snow White's wanted poster they saw in the woods. Bandit!Snow was before Regina was banished and dethroned, which meant travel in the past Enchanted Forest was just that much more complicated now.

Hook was still dressed for the Enchanted Forest, even if he was wearing a cheerful shade of black from head to toe and 80% leather. Emma's jeans and Archie's sweater vest weren't going to cut it, so they went to borrow some off a clothesline. That was where the trouble began...at least in the past. In the future, Emma had parents who just didn't understand Storybrooke wasn't _her_ home. It was some weird...pocket dimension place, where book characters lived. Not her.

Speaking of some of those characters, Archie immediately turned around and walked away. He recognized the village they were near as somewhere that Gepetto had lived with Pinocchio. According to Henry's book, if Emma remembered right, Gepetto was really the only person who could properly ID Jiminy pre-Cricket. She understood not wanting to foul up the timeline perfectly...until that poor random woman was being dragged away.

(Seeing the full Evil Queen in action made the original Mayor Mills look like a reasonable, healthy individual, and Emma had to wonder if Regina was taking vindictive pills at this point in history.)

The Enchanted Forest clothes they snatched up before returning to Archie weren't perfect. His new pants were at least an inch too short. Emma was pretty sure her corset thingie was too small, and the shoes were just a pinch too big. She wasn't sure which one to blame for her little accident. They'd ended up near a road, where a white carriage was parked, (did you park a carriage?) and a bunch of knights were standing around a log. This was familiar, and when Emma looked up her heart skipped a beat.

Only...instead of watching how her parents first met, Emma managed to ruin it by breaking a tree branch. Snow White gracelessly fell out the tree from surprise, and scrambled into the woods with _Prince James_ warning of an ambush.

Oh god.

_Oh god._

What had she done?

As if all of this- _Evil Queens, endangering her own existence, one-way time travel,_ -weren't bad enough, Hook's suggestion was really the only possible way out of this mess. Even Emma knew that in the Enchanted Forest, when you had an impossible problem, there was only one man who could help you. Rumpelstiltskin the Dark One.

* * *

Although Captain Hook was doing his best to lead them to the Dark Castle, Archie didn't think he'd been there before in his life. Despite Hook claiming that he was mortal enemies with Rumpelstiltskin/Gold, Mr. Gold just treated him like an annoyance at best. And for all his shortcomings, Hook wasn't entirely stupid, and he eventually admitted he'd never been to the Dark Castle personally.

"I had a crewman who once travelled there for a deal, he told me the route to take. But it seemed...unwise to step on to the Crocodile's home territory without a plan."

Archie had to take over when they spent the an hour back-tracking after a wrong turn. The woods were different, the roads were more well-worn, but the route really hadn't changed all that much from the time he was a human. His parents had done a lot of stealing for the Dark One, magical objects or rarities no one else knew the value of. And Rumpelstiltskin always wanted a name of who had owned what before it was stolen...it was very strange, and Archie had been the one to deliver the goods every time they were hired since he was fifteen.

Rumpelstiltskin suggested that very arrangement, after threatening to turn Archie's mother into a cow when she tried making off with some silver candlesticks.

("It wouldn't be all that hard, dearie!" Archie could still see the scaly Dark One shaking a clawed finger at his trembling parents like they were naughty children. "You already act like one!")

The closer they got, however, the more Archie realized there was a flaw in their plan. Rumpelstiltskin knew what he looked like. True, he could just say his name was Archie Hopper, which wasn't a lie, and he could hope Rumpelstiltskin just thought of him as a distant descendant rather than a re-humanized Jiminy. But how could they possible explain Captain Hook, who Rumpelstiltskin would _definitely_ know on sight?

As the Dark Castle came into view, far ahead through the pines, Hook started hanging back. "I think it would be best if I stayed behind," he suggested. "We have a bit of a...complicated past. I wager he'd want to kill me on sight."

"Oh I'll take that bet! Nyahaha!"

* * *

Rumpelstiltskin was quite aware his teeth were a sight, as was the rest of his face. For once he was glad so that the tiny little pirate in the bottle got an up-close view of his sneer.

"Well, well, well, well! Well!" he twisted the bottle to the sight, snickering when the good captain toppled over. "I always keep my end of the bargain, dearie, I just hope your little friends come through with theirs!"

He didn't do something for nothing. Even if this Emma girl was to be believed and keeping this pirate alive for a few more decades would reunite him with his boy, Rumpelstiltskin wasn't just going to leave it up to her and that bespectacled redhead. There was something very familiar about that one, too, though Rumpelstiltskin couldn't immediately place him. They must have had a deal before. That was the only reason anyone came to him, after all...

He'd felt he almost had it when a byproduct of another deal appeared before him with her hands on her hips.

"What are you doing to that man?" Belle demanded.

"Keeping him quite safe, I promise," Rumpelstiltskin replied with a roll of his eyes and a crossing motion over his heart. "We've a bit of a..." he glanced at Hook. "What did you call it, ah yes! A complicated past. I'm working on a little problem his friends have run into, and he's going to keep me company."

Belle was an odd girl. She looked like she was debating whether she should protest the captive man in the bottle more, or ask about what their deal entailed. Her insatiable curiosity won out in the end, as always, and she hopped up on the banquet table in the middle of the Great Hall.

"What sort of problem is it? Can I help?"

"It's not a problem for little maids," Rumpelstiltskin sniffed, wiping a finger on the wooden table and inspecting it for dust. "Shouldn't you be tidying up or something?"

She sighed in a long-suffering manner, sliding off the table. Rumpelstiltskin watched the swish of her blue skirts as she went, mentally calculating how long he had before that stubborn little thing tried to free Captain Hook herself. What a bothersome girl. That Emma woman didn't know what she was talking about. Fall for each other _indeed_.

* * *

Things still weren't going well.

They tracked Snow White down to the docks, where she was trying to buy passage out of the Enchanted Forest off of...Blackbeard? It couldn't be the Blackbeard because he was a real pirate, maybe it was just some guy who called himself Blackbeard-That doesn't matter, Emma, she chided herself. What _mattered_ was that they convinced Snow to go back and steal the ring, just like in the past-Just like it should be. Right.

How?

They saw past!Hook in the same bar. He had a gaggle of barmaids hanging around him and a lot of booze flowing at his table, looking like a pirate in his natural element. Emma almost wished Hook was with them if only because he could pose as himself, since "he" had a ship and they could convince Snow White to...

She turned to Archie: "How would you feel about hiring my mother to steal a ring?"

Archie blinked.

* * *

"It's just one last job," Snow muttered to herself, poking around the room for jewelry. "One last job..."

She'd been approached by a man on the docks, wondering how she was going to meet Blackbeard's outrageous price. This man had a very sweet face, wearing unsual spectacles, and his hair was bright red. He didn't seem like a criminal, but he still offered to pay her a sum of money to steal a ring from King Midas' castle. Plus, Snow didn't exactly have a criminal face herself, and yet it was slapped all over wanted posters. So: The ring.

Gold band, green stones, in Prince James' possession most likely.

The sum was enough to cover Blackbeard's demand for "quiet" passage out of the kingdom, as well as leave her some to start a new life with. Ironic that if Snow hadn't been surprised by those travellers and fallen out the tree earlier, she probably could have had that same ring with her right when the man approached her.

Fate sure did work in strange ways.

* * *

Emma snatched a roll off a tray of food as she was being dragged down to the dungeons. It was a tiny, pathetic act of rebellion really, but if it would annoy her royal-pain-in-the-ass upstairs, then so much the better.

The Evil Queen really knew how to crash a party.

* * *

Red received word via one of Snow's birds that she need some help at the Evil Queen's castle. Letters sent by bird were always a bit small, not leaving a lot of room for details. It essentially said: **Dear Red, I need to break someone out of the Evil Queen's dungeon tonight. I would appreciate your help if you can make it. Sincerely, Snow.**

But still, Red showed up the following night. She travelled as a wolf for most of the run, keeping her cloak clenched in her jaws so that she could resume human shape when she got there. Knowing Snow, she had some sort of allies with her already, ones that might not appreciate a massive brown werewolf bounding up to them. It was a full moon tonight, and even with her cloak on, since balancing her dual natures, Ruby found her sense of smell was sharper on these nights.

She could smell Snow...but not. As if she'd been there but left.

She found Snow's allies, (Snow could make friends with a wild boar given enough time,) a handsome blonde man dressed in expensive leathers that could only belong to a knight or a noble, and another rather good-looking man in very fine clothes, too. Almost as if he'd just waltzed out of a ball. Was it her imagination or did he look at her rather oddly? He definitely looked away from her, shyly, but why? Did she know him? Did he think she was...pretty, maybe?

Okay, no, she needed to focus: Dungeon.

Specifically, it was time to focus on the heavily armed guards. The redheaded stranger didn't have a sword with him, but the blonde did. He could probably take out one, with a bit of help...

Which was exactly why Red was here under a full moon.

* * *

Marian was pleased that the brave Princess Leia knew how to pick locks. Almost as well as her husband.

(Oh dear, Robin must be so worried about her, she'd been trying not to think of him or the baby since she'd been captured but now with freedom so close at hand...)

Despite being immensely grateful to be rescued, Marian wasn't entirely sure what was going on around her. For one thing, someone had just been burned alive in the queen's courtyard. For another, she must have been a friend to the mysterious woman in the red cloak and the blonde man with the sword, because they were all extremely upset. Princess Leia seemed to be in a state of shock, herded along by the other man, who managed to look remarkably calm even as his hands and voice were shaking.

He stuck close to the princess on their way...wherever they were going. Marian suggested they go to Sherwood Forest, while Prince John wasn't much better than the Evil Queen, at least Robin would help to keep them safe. For only a moment, Princess Leia snapped out of her stupor to look at Marian as if she'd said the sky were green.

"Robin? Your husband is-So your Maid Marian?"

"Well..." Marian smiled shyly, thinking of their little son tucked safely at home. Hopefully. "Not quite a maid anymore. We do have a son. He was the reason I didn't dare speak my name where the queen could hear it, I couldn't let her harm him in any way."

"Yeah...well...you sure don't have to worry about that."

It was not long after they had all paused for the night, far from the Evil Queen's castle, that a bug appeared. And began to sparkle with blue light, and suddenly became a pale, raven-haired woman dressed in clothes that would have suited a Merry Man quite well. Princess Leia leapt up and embraced her, although the woman looked a bit puzzled as to why. Then she was set upon by the woman in the red cloak, who was much more warmly recieved.

Yes, Marian did not understand what was going on, but she was pleased things had a happy ending.

* * *

Because everyone was exhausted, they didn't really move on until the next morning. Ruby-er, Red that is,-bid Snow a fond farewell, and Archie sincerely hoped he didn't blush when she threw him a wink in passing. Her hair was always really pretty all curly like that.

Unfortunately, they had a white elephant in the woods that needed their full attention. Snow and Charming were warming up to each other, like Emma noticed, but that still left Marian behind. She was Robin Hood's wife...the dead wife. The one who passed away and made Robin Hood a widower. Archie didn't doubt Robin would want to pick up where they last left off because of his code of honor if they did what Emma hesitantly proposed.

"We can't do that."

"But what else _can_ we do? She was supposed to be executed at dawn, she doesn't belong here!"

"Emma, you cannot bring Marian back with us." Archie glanced over at the woman, who was sitting quietly out of earshot. "She's a very sweet woman and I _might_ agree with you, but as much harm as she might do here, I don't see it being greater than the harm she might do in the present."

The face she made indicated Emma was considering the possibilities. Archie's conscience was, for once, completely useless. He didn't want to just _leave_ Marian if she didn't belong here, but taking her to the future just felt...wrong. There was at least a few years (not counting the curse, of course,) between now and their time. A lot could happen then, any little change could alter the course of fate, and Archie wished that he knew exactly how Marian was supposed to have died. He hadn't gotten the chance to talk all that much with Robin, or any of the Merry Men, due to the fact that several had been made flying monkeys, and the rest were trying to stop Zelena from making things any worse.

Time travel was so complicated.

"Ugh..." Emma pinched the bridge of her nose. "My _head_. Okay, okay...Roland is what, four? Five? Okay, and Marian died before he was a year old, right? So...uh...shit, I don't know. The timing is very close to when she should be dead, too close for comfort."

They sat racking their brains for a few minutes more when suddenly David came up to them. Snow hadn't come back from filling up the water canteen.

And his ring was missing.

* * *

Marian had left Roland in Friar Tuck's care, and gone to the nearest village to buy some yarn. She was making a blanket for Roland to wear, green of course, but she needed just a little more thread than she had. Robin would have thought that it was perfectly safe had she not been absent all day, well into the night.

They were barely near Sherwood forest at all, Prince John and Nottingham shouldn't even be aware they were out here. Robin had thought that with their low profiles, this would be the perfect spot to make camp until Marian was fit again and Roland was just a bit older, stronger for travelling. But he had miscalculated on what the Evil Queen might do in her legendary vendetta against Snow White.

He had rounded up the Merry Men to break in to the dungeons, only to see guards out in the woods already searching for escaped prisoners. Marian had escaped, now they just had to find her.

In the end, they found her sitting in a campsite with a stranger in fine clothes. Marian leapt up and ran to him straight away, jumping into his arms with a wide grin. She explained that she'd been rescued by the stranger and his friends, particularly a princess named Leia, as well as the renegade Snow White. She seemed to have gone missing at the moment, though. A pity as Robin rather would have enjoyed meeting a fellow noble-turned-bandit.

The stranger ( _"I'm...Bob? Er, how do you do?"_ ) hesitated a moment when Marian bid him a farewell. He almost seemed like he wanted to say something, but changed his mind. "Take care," he said instead, waving as the Merry Men and their lady headed back home.

And _home_ it would be.

The Evil Queen wasn't someone Robin wanted to cross paths with anytime soon. They would move back to Sherwood Forest, where at least they were familiar with all the hidey-holes and had a fighting chance at evading future visits to dungeons. It sure helped that Nottingham, the drunken sheriff, was so easy to trick.

* * *

Belle rose early the next morning. Rumple seemed quite busy yesterday with whatever business he had with the bottled man and his companions, but this morning he was sitting at the table waiting on breakfast like any other morning.

"Did you finish with your deal?" she asked, hoping she was being subtle. She didn't like the idea of Rumpelstiltskin having prisoners, period, but a man in a bottle seemed a bit much. How would he eat in there?

"What deal?" he replied, staring at her blankly with his reptilian eyes. She used to think they were frightening, but now they were just...his. She'd noticed they were framed by oddly long lashes when she'd fallen off the ladder, not that it was important, mind you.

"The one you said was none of my business," Belle shook herself, getting back to the matter at hand. "The blonde woman, and the one man you put in a bottle?"

"Mm..." Rumple settled back in his chair, steepling his fingers. "And I said it was none of your business, of course?"

"You did..."

"Then it isn't! So shall it be, or rather, _not_ be!" he gave one of those bizarre, twittering laughs of his, helping himself to the honey to sweeten his porridge with. "Now will you be joining me for breakfast or shall you start doing those chores I hired you to do?"

Belle rolled her eyes, snatching up a tea cup and pouring herself some while eyeing the breakfast trays. "You didn't hire me, so, I shall have my breakfast. Then I think I'll do some mopping today."

And while she was mopping, Belle most certainly would take a peek in Rumple's laboratory and dungeons. Just to be sure that the man got to go home in one piece. Clearly Rumple wasn't going to tell her what happened, so she'd just have to find out for herself--

Belle blinked.

She had that oddest sensation of waking up from a dream, but no explanation as to why. Everything was exactly as it had always been, even just a second ago. How very odd. She brushed the feeling aside in a moment, taking a sip of her iced tea and settling back against Rumple.

There were so many people eager to wish Snow and David the best that seating was becoming limited. Neal was rolling his eyes and pretending he wasn't with them ever since Belle sat down on his father's lap, but she-with love of course,-could care less. She'd been separated by death and a horrible woman from Rumpelstiltskin for a whole year, she missed being close to him, and his arms around her waist told her he didn't mind. And the empty chair was taken by Emma for the moment, so she figured Neal didn't mind either.

"Did I ever thank you for teaching me how to pick locks?"

"That's a weird 'hello', isn't it?" Neal chuckled

Emma smiled fondly at him. She looked... _lighter_ than she had for some time. Belle couldn't put her finger on why, but she was glad. Emma deserved a break from the near-constant stress she'd been under since coming back to Storybrooke. There were rumors she was going to move back to New York-

"So, Gold," Emma looked across to Rumple. "The vacant apartment on Mulberry Street, with the two bedrooms on the second floor?"

"What about it?" Rumple asked, reaching across Belle to pick up a cookie from her plate. She was glad that he was nibbling at the available food, his appetite didn't seem to be very strong lately.

"Does it have a shower or one of those tub-shower things in it?"

* * *

Since his mom was making inquiries about a two-bedroom apartment close to his school, Henry felt pretty confident that they would be staying here in Storybrooke. Hook hovered around Mom for a little bit, but eventually he wandered off towards the diner's counter where most of the alcohol was. He was chatting up a brunette now, so he looked pretty occupied.

(Speaking of _occupied_ , Henry saw Archie and Red standing halfway in the corridor by the jukebox. He wondered what they were talking about and why Archie kept squirming so, and why Ruby's smile kept getting bigger and bigger.)

His other mother, Regina that is, showed up just a little late to the party with Robin and Roland. His other-mother was _dating_ Robin Hood. Henry still had so many questions about that, but none were disapproving necessarily. His mom needed somebody else in her life, and Robin really made her smile. When she sat down, too, Roland clambered up on her lap to get a good look at Henry's baby uncle before declaring he looked like a monkey. Mom tugged on one of Roland's little ears and said he looked like a monkey, and that made her smile too.

Henry's dad came over, eventually, and convinced Belle and Mr. Gold to jump to the empty table near theirs. Practically all of Henry's family was together for the first time, drawn together largely by the bizarre story Emma had to tell of where she'd been once that sky-beam went up.

(Zelena was still firmly locked up. She smugly declared that she had a timer set on the time portal and that it wouldn't shut down until someone went through it. She bragged that she might not get her happy ending, but someone would fall through eventually and ruin everyone else's life sooner or later. That was about when Regina muted her screechy voice.)

"Princess Leia? Really?"

"You made me watch Star Wars, that was the only thing I could thing of!"

"Awesome!" Henry grinned. "My mom's Princess Leia!"

"Well considering my sister is the Wicked Witch of the West, and your grandfather is somehow Rumpelstiltskin, the Beast, and the Crocodile-"

"Cinderella's fairy godmother," Emma cut Regina off suddenly. "He's a fairy godmother too. Wait. Godfather? Do they have fairy godfathers? Where's Tinker Bell?"

"She's over there with Sister Astrid, I think," Snow nodded across the diner. "I almost can't believe the fairies came out. That reminds me, David, do you think our child should have a fairy godmother? I know we were planning to let Blue be yours, Emma."

"You know, if you think about it," Regina smirked, "Rumple could be seen as _her_ fairy godfather, too."

"I believe I speak for Miss Swan when I say: No."

"He does speak for me, no way. And I don't see why Graham needs a godmother of any kind considering the family he's got pouring out his ears anyway, Mom."

* * *

No one had noticed the earn that flew out right after Emma in the barn. Therefore, no one was around to see Elsa come out of it.

In a daze, she walked out into the night, leaving a trail of ice behind her...

Anna.

Had to find Anna...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Believe it or not, Robin has said that Marian died because he put her in harm's way during a job. And this is OUAT we're talking about, where we've literally seen continuity errors occur in the episode following the one a fact was established in. Therefore, it is my head canon/theory that Marian would have been rescued from her cell in the middle of the night, and died later on.
> 
> (Also because Regina ordering Marian to death SCREAMS of the same ~DRAMAZ~ that had Zelena kill and pose as Marian afterwards...I hate the ~dramaz~.)
> 
> Also, despite what the wiki told me, (damned user submitted information!) Archie DID NOT go to Rumple specifically for that puppet-potion. The scene shows him bring Rumple a sack of stolen goods and a list of names they were stolen from, before the subject comes up. He would know where the Dark Castle was, and I doubt Hook has been there before. Not without loosing another limb, at least. I also didn't give Archie a sword because I don't think he'd know how to use it. Archie is a good cinnamon roll that just wants to help, he's not equipped for all this adventure nonsense.
> 
> Hook spent most of his time sitting in a bottle ignored on a shelf, and was no worse for wear while Rumple was working out the timey-wimey details. No pirates were harmed in the making of this fic.


End file.
